Marine vehicles, such as boats or totally submergible vehicles, are usable to transport a payload and other purposes. Payloads can include articles secured within the marine vehicle, or articles outside the vehicle that are pulled behind the marine vehicle, such as pulling a scuba diver through the water with reduced physical exertion. Irrespective of the type of marine vehicle and intended use, the ability to quickly and accurately control the direction of travel of the marine vehicle is extremely important.
It is known to use control members having control surfaces that extend outwardly from the marine vehicle in contact with the water to achieve directional control. By manipulating, e.g., rotating, the control member(s) with respect to the marine vehicle, the flow of water around the control surfaces produces “lift.” To enhance directional control, the size of the control surfaces can be increased, which likewise increases the amount of lift produced by the control surfaces. However, larger control surfaces complicate handling of the marine vehicle by significantly increasing the cross-sectional profile of the marine vehicle. In the case of a control member extending downwardly from the hull of a boat, the minimum depth required to avoid damaging the control member from “bottoming out” is increased.
What is needed is a control member within a control surface system that produces increased control surface lift without appreciably increasing the cross-sectional profile of the marine vehicle.